


Sprouts of Spring

by Orlha



Series: Sakura blossoms in April's showers [6]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Character Development, Gen, Haruno Sakura has a bad childhood, Haruno Sakura-centric, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Shikaku adopts them all, Shikaku-centric, naruto tries to help
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-04
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2020-11-08 17:10:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20839082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Orlha/pseuds/Orlha
Summary: Shikaku finds that horrors don't just exist outside of Konoha, that horrors don't stop at people you barely know.ESR AU





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For all the new readers: This is an AU of Early Summer Rain and while I think you _probably_ don't need to read it, I'd encourage you to.
> 
> For all the old readers: Yes, I have caved in and given this AU a whole side story ish.

Naruto smuggles two expired conbini1 onigiri into Sakura’s pocket. He’s spent his last dumpster diving to pick out food for Sakura. Sakura smiles faintly at the sudden weight in her pocket and taps a finger on the table - their own secret code for thank you. She doesn’t look up and he doesn’t pause to talk to her. They both know they can’t be friends in public. Naruto has seen her flinches whenever they spar and knows it’s not from the fear of fists but the twinge of a healing wound. He’s seen the way her mother looks at him, seen Sakura’s mask. He knows her mask as keenly as he knows his own - the bubbly, sunny personality to throw people off. 

His stomach growls. _Maybe Iruka would part with a bowl or two_, he thinks.

And when he goes home with a stomach full of warm soup and noodles, he thinks of Sakura eating the cold expired onigiri under her bed. 

Tomorrow, he’ll steal a bento for her. 

_Iruka-sensei talked about having variety,_ he thinks. Stealing a fresh bento might get him into trouble, but when has he not been in trouble?

✥.✥.✥

_Today is Wednesday!_ He almost bounces in joy at the thought of it, drawing little hokage hats all over his worksheet. 

Wednesdays are days Sakura’s father and mother aren’t around.

Wednesdays are the days that he can be sure that Sakura is safe.

Wednesdays are the days when he sneaks into her room and they do homework together.

Sakura have been looking more tired than usual. Has her parents forgotten to replenish Sakura’s ration bars? Maybe he can steal from one of his Anbu watchers a ration bar pack?

“Naruto.”

He looks up from his doodles, surprised that Shikamaru has approached him. After all, they never hang out on Wednesdays. 

“My dad wants you to come over for dinner tonight,” Shikamaru says, looking apathetic as he always does.

‘_But it’s Wednesday,’ _he almost replies. 

Naruto doesn’t. Considering Shikamaru’s pattern, replying that would require an answer why Wednesdays are special. No one can know about Sakura. Jiji didn’t care when he asked him about adults beating children. He only said that they weren’t supposed to do it out of training. Jiji only cared for him, but it didn’t extend to Sakura. 

He glances to Sakura and her circle of ‘friends’.

“Troublesome, I know you always ask Sakura out for ramen on Wednesdays. But she always rejects you anyway,” Shikamaru yawns. 

‘_But that’s their way of confirmation.’_ Naruto looks down at his drawings then puts on a wide grin for Shikamaru. “Is ta going to be ramen?”

“Yes.”

Naruto wonders if he should be worried about Shikamaru’s dad. What if Shikamaru’s dad is like Sakura’s dad?

Naruto nods and gives him a thumbs up. “I’ll be ta!” He says, carefully not looking at Sakura. 

Shikamaru’s dad is almost exactly like Shikamaru - grumpy and lazy. He slurps down the noodles with great speed, answering Shikamaru’s parents questions with full mouths. They don’t scold him and they don’t look disgusted at his antics. 

Naruto immediately decides that there must be an u-te-ri-er mo-tive for asking him over and his thoughts on asking Shikamaru’s dad help for Sakura’s dad is a no-go. 

They teach him shogi and by the time he is allowed to go home, the moon is high in the sky. Shikamaru’s dad insists on walking him back home so he can’t just ditch and go to Sakura’s. 

And the fact that he hasn’t gotten to speak to Sakura is making him anxious. Is she okay? Did her dad beat her up real bad today? The ration bar he stole from Shikamaru’s kitchen weighs heavily in his pocket.

“You should come over on Wednesdays,” Shikamaru’s dad says when they finally reach his apartment. 

“I gotta ask Sakura out!” Naruto says.

“If she keeps rejecting you, then maybe you should stop trying to force it,” Shikamaru’s dad tells him gently. “She said no. You should respect it.”

Naruto understands that. But he can’t let Sakura go. They are best friends. Naruto have Jiji, the weird dog Anbu and Iruka. Sakura have only him.

He only smiles at Shikamaru’s dad. “I gotta keep tryin’! She said just maybe the other day!”

“Naruto…”

“Thank’ya for dinner! Bye!” He says loudly and hurries into his apartment. His door slams shut behind him and he tugs off his sandals, trooping through his messy apartment to the balcony. If he hurries, he can make it to Sakura’s room before bedtime. A shadow falls over him as he’s slipping his sandals on and he looks up carefully. 

There hasn’t been any shinobi attacking his apartment since three years ago after Dog took care of them - but that doesn’t mean it can’t start again.

Shikamaru’s dad stands over him, with a deep frown.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Naruto looks down at his feet, shoulders tense. 

“You can’t keep stalking Sakura, Naruto… She said no, let it go, okay?”

Naruto clenches his jaw and looks up into Shikamaru’s dad’s eyes. “No.” Just because Mizuki had tricked him, doesn’t mean all adults are bad, right? After all Iruka-sensei have been kind. Sakura was depending on him and Naruto is smart enough to tell when a situation was too big for him to handle. 

“Y— You’ve gotta come. We gotta be quick!” Naruto shimmies down the rusty pipes, hurriedly making his way to Sakura’s house. 

“Naruto?” Shikamaru’s dad follows, the frown never leaving his face. 

Just one more try, Naruto decides and takes Shikamaru’s dad’s hand. “We gotta — I gots ta—” He scratches his head in frustration, unable to find the words to explain the problem. “Asshole ain’t home on Wed’days. I go over ta bring Sakura food when he’s na ‘round.”

Shikamaru’s dad stiffens. 

“When I ask her out, she says maybe, means her dad’s home. she says no, means I can come ova. Sakura looks real hungry this week. Her mama musta not given her food this week—" Naruto turns to look at Shikamaru's dad, throat aching with unshed tears, hoping that Shikamaru's dad is like that Dog Anbu. 

Shikaku stood up straighter, the implications settling heavily in Shikaku's stomach. Slinging Naruto into his shoulders, Shikaku asks urgently, "which street does she live on?" 

“Fourth Kagami Lane,” Naruto replies, his small hands holding tightly onto his jounin vest. 

Shikaku had assumed that Naruto had simply been stalking the girl, a case of childish crush, something he had been asked to nip in the bud by the Hokage. Abuse isn’t something he expected, at least not on Kizashi’s daughter, especially not with how Kizashi smiles and talks about her.

Flickering across the village, Shikaku mentally marked out all the Anbu patrols around. Someone must have seen it. He couldn’t believe that a village full of Shinobis had completely missed this. Naruto’s body expression had been too honest and sincere to have been lying.

Could have it been mistaken?

He sets Naruto down in the backyard, looking dubiously at the house. The house that Naruto indicated was too dark to have a kid of Shikamaru's age, but Naruto climbed up so fast that Shikaku could have mistaken it for vertical-walking and that had only served to hammer in that amount of practice Naruto must have had.

“Sakura-chan?” Naruto whispers, crouching on the window ledge. The window slides open barely a moment later like she’s been waiting. “I gotcha bento… and ration bars," he murmurs and he slides into the room. 

Shikaku lets the shadow envelop him, quietly watching their exchange. 

Too skinny, Shikaku realises. If Kizashi hadn’t mentioned about the diet his daughter was on and refused to get off, he might have— 

Shikaku forces down the anger. Anger wouldn’t serve well in this situation. He steps into the room, letting the shadows melt away. The two kids start at his sudden presence, Naruto sliding in front of Sakura automatically, but surprisingly making no startled sound. He’s not surprised. Naruto, who have been beaten by the villagers, would have learnt how to keep silent and if Sakura’s abuse is real— 

Shikaku likes Kizashi. The man was a good shinobi, responsible, the very idea that he does this to his own child revolts him.

“Hello Sakura-chan, I’m Shikamaru’s dad,” Shikaku says gently. “Would you like to come with me? I’ll take you away so you’ll never need to come back.”

Sakura trembles so hard that it hurts him watching her. 

“W— wi— will it— it— hurt less?” She peers at him over Naruto’s shoulder, clutching tightly on the edge of his jacket. 

“I’ll never hurt you, not me, not Chouji’s dad, not Ino’s dad, not anyone anymore.”

“Mama says I— I can’t be friends with Ino and Pa— Papa says… pa— pains is part of training and— ”

“Sakura’s dad cuts her up,” Naruto interjects, folding his arms as though he’s trying to look bigger, like he doesn’t think that Shikaku would believe him. 

“Sakura’s dad like ta bring her ta the…” He motions downwards, glancing at Sakura before settling back on him. “And cut her up, says its training. I think it’s allll bullshit.”

Shodaime’s balls_,_ what on earth have Kizashi been doing to her? 

Shikaku bites the side of his cheek and forces a soft smile. “That’s usually not until you’re far into your Chuunin career.”

The two kids wordlessly share looks and Shikaku feels a whole conversation exchange in that fragment of second. 

“P— promise?” Sakura holds out a pinkie, desperately trying to mask her terrified look with a smile. Her mistrust in him, in adults hurts. Only eight and already learning to mistrust the people she should be able to trust unconditionally.

Shikaku loops his pinkie around hers. “I swear over my father’s grave, the honor of the Nara clan that I won’t or let anyone hurt you.” With great deliberate movements, Shikaku sets his hand on Naruto’s head. 

“That’s a shinobi promise,” he explains. “If a shinobi makes it and break it, they get stripped off their chakra and clan.”

Naruto shrugs and Sakura edges towards Shikaku, putting her hand into his. "Is there anything you want to take with you?" Shikaku tries not to mind the too skinny hand in hand. 

No child of Konoha should be _this_ skinny, he rages. Chouza would know how to fix this. 

Naruto scrapes a pile of clothes and stuffs it into a red bag. "I've got all of her stuff," he says. 

One tiny bag, how could she have so little things that it all fits one tiny red bag?

Carefully telegraphing his motions, Shikaku scoops then up and sets them on his shoulders. The fact their combined weight barely registers shames him. How could the entire village miss this? 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Conbini - Conbini actually refers to Convenience stores in Japan. In their Convenience stores, they sell ready-made food, like Onigiri, Bentos, dons, etc


	2. Chapter 2

Shikaku slings the two kids off his shoulders, setting Sakura's red bag on Chouza's dining table. 

“Shikaku?” Chouza calls out hesitantly.

Shikaku wouldn’t blame Chouza for his hesitance. His chakra had been churning all the way home. He feels two hands gripping the side of his vest. 

Her father cuts her up, he seethes internally. 

“Chouza, do you have any food for Sakura?” Shikaku very slowly sets his hand on her shoulders and he tries not to react when she flinches. Chouza nods surreptitiously back immediately understanding his unsaid words.

Kneeling, Chouza smiles at Sakura. “I’m Akimichi Chouza, and you must be Sakura.” 

“And I’m Uzumaki Naruto!” Naruto says, putting himself in front of Sakura. 

“It’s nice to meet you, Naruto-kun. We have some food left from dinner, shall we go and get some?” His eyes flicker across the two children, lingering on her far too prominent collarbones.

They would need more clothes, pyjamas. Shikaku runs the list of things to get in his mind and when Naruto finally allows Chouza to cajole them into the kitchen, he makes two clones. Quietly, he replaces himself with a clone knowing that Chouza would look after them well.

He leaps across the roofs of the sleeping town, pass the Anbu patrols. The trees rustle in the breeze and Shikaku shudders. The days have started to cool. From the size of the red bag...

For a man who starves and tortures his own daughter, would he even have cared to get her a coat? He sneers, fingernails digging crescents into his palm. 

All the people, the teachers, the military police, Inoichi. None of them had seen it!

Shikaku briefly wonders if maybe it is all a misunderstanding. He worked with Kizashi several times. The idea of that very cheerful, helpful man…

He halts on a rooftop. To take a child’s word for certainty would be biased. He needs to investigate this properly. 

✥.✥.✥

As Sakura expected, the Shadow man left right after leaving them with the Big man. Chouza tried to soften his words and actions, but he is undoubtedly a shinobi. Sakura might be training to be a shinobi, but Sakura would never be like him. 

Perhaps now her training with Papa had ended. After all Papa had always said that she was useless. 

“Eat what you can and stop when you can’t, okay?” Chouza says as he puts a steaming bowl of chazuke in front of her.

Is the food for her? Sakura looks up at him with a puzzled look. Mama hadn’t allowed her to eat rice and she had never eaten hot rice. 

_Might as well eat it before he changes his mind,_ Inner urges.

She lifts the bowl, scooping the rice into her mouth. The taste of hot green tea mixed with salted fish and rice floods her mouth. Soft and fluffy. Sakura sets the bowl with a sniffs and scrubs her face hard, trying to stop her tears from falling.

For this, Sakura wouldn’t even mind if Papa puts her through an extra long training session.

✥.✥.✥

Shikaku forgoes manners and knocks on the chief superintendent’s window. It might be already ten, but almost everyone knows that Fugaku never leaves until much, much later.

Sighing loudly, Fugaku palms his eyes. “Why are you here, Shikaku-san?”

“One of the KMP jobs is to protect the children, right?” Shikaku lifts an eyebrow at him and Fugaku bristles at his tone.

“Of course! That hasn’t changed since the founding—”

“Then what about Haruno Sakura? Are you aware of her situation?” Shikaku slouches into the window, forcing himself to appear relaxed.

“My son had reported it half a year ago. Since then we had an eye on her, but we’ve yet to receive any conclusive results. _Unfortunately, _the Council insists that we need to have ‘evidence’ of child abusive before we are allowed to inspect any house,” Fugaku replies dryly.

“Ridiculous,” Shikaku agrees, because isn’t the point of inspecting the house is finding evidence? “Well, I now have concrete proof. Witness and victim’s testimony.”

“Then we can finally move.” Fugaku nods and stand, calling out to his secretary outside. “Akane, summon Hikaku and Yakumi. Tell them we’re going hunting.”

“Hunting?” If they were as passionate about looking after children, then why had no one in the village seen it? 

Fugaku rises, stepping across the piles of paperwork and ties his batons onto his belt. “_Hunting_ is the word we use when we go and arrest child abusers.”

Shikaku follows Fugaku down the hallway and pauses. The large red words of ‘_Protect the Village, Protect the Children’ _frames the village map. In the map there are markers all over, including Naruto’s name on the board. All filled with tiny commentary on the side. Shikaku knew the KMP protected the children, but this… This looks like commitment that he had never seen or heard about.

“What is this?”

“We inspect orphaned children’s apartment, make sure they’re getting the proper nutrition, that they’re not living in filth, and so on. If they’re not up to scrape, we make sure they go to classes that teach them the relevant skills.”

Shikaku hums. 

It appears that there are things that the KMP did that even he, as a Jounin Commander, isn’t aware of and now that he thinks of it, the rumours on how the Uchiha are planning something seems ridiculous.

Shikaku casts a discerning glance across the files, memorizing the labels on them. 

_‘Petition for the rights of Supervision of Uzumaki Naruto.’_

Naruto is an orphan, if what he said is true, then Naruto should have been under their supervision. Shikaku files away the inconsistencies as two other Uchiha approach them.

“There have been conclusive testimony for the abuse of Haruno Sakura,” Fugaku says without preamble. The two Uchihas glance at Shikaku, with a subtle smug look.

He wonders if they knew exactly what possible abuse Sakura might have undergone and wonders how an eight year old had seen it but not the ones trained to.

“We’ll likely need to recruit a Inuzuka or Hatake to find it, but it appears that Haruno’s parents did not just stop at starving her, but also torturing her.”

And perhaps surprisingly for Shikaku, who have only ever heard bad rumours about the Uchiha and KMP, the smug looks on their faces fade into one of a grim determination.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a point summary for those who want it, sorry!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't have the time or energy to write this right now. Also SFoA and this has different vibes, so it's hard to slip back into this Sakura when writing it, so I'll just give the main points... and who knows I might come back and finish this eventually. If not, if anyone who wants to try their hand at it, feel free to. Just ask me first!

  * Shikaku realises that the village is treating Uchiha unfairly and tries to rectify it. Inoichi and Chouza show their support during the council meetings.
  * Fugaku is grateful for actual people on his side now. This _coup_ thing doesn’t escalate. At least not until the shit hits the fan.
  * Shikaku realises that there’s something deeply wrong with the Hokage Council.
  * Meanwhile Sakura temporarily with Chouza and being fed with lots of food. She’s still skittish and eats extremely quickly so that people can’t change their minds and take her food away.
  * Naruto is hoarding food, for _just in case_ purposes and both Sakura and Naruto’s actions affect the adults.
  * They fight for guardianship for Sakura and Naruto.
  * The Hokage Council refuse to even consider either. On the grounds that Haruno Clan is a revered noble clan. Trying to take a child from them is akin to stealing a bloodline. And ‘_the jinchuuriki’_ is a weapon not meant to be wielded by any single clan.
  * Shikaku schemes to get Shimura Danzo removed from the Hokage Council.
  * Danzo point blank subtly threatens Shikaku with Shikamaru, Ino and the safety of the Nara clan.
  * Shikaku pretends to cow, but is outraged. He is forced to give up the fight for Sakura.
  * Kizashi is exonerated from his charges and resumes working in the hospital.
  * Sakura is returned to Kizashi and Mebuki where she is locked in the basement.
  * Shikaku and Inoichi momentarily considers assassination of Kizashi.
  * Fugaku presses Sasuke into ‘service’ by keeping an eye on Sakura and bringing lunches for Naruto and her.
  * Sasuke becomes friends with Shikamaru, Ino and Chouza who also have been asked by their parents to do the same for Naruto and Sakura.
  * Shikaku uses his position to make Kizashi’s life as a jounin extremely difficult, by sending him out on missions constantly and when asked why, Shikaku tells them about the things he does to Sakura.
  * Shikamaru observes Sakura and thinks based on what his father had told him, Sakura had done really well in keeping up with the classes. He has a semi-crush.
  * Kizashi’s reputation is slowly eroding with Shikaku and Inoichi’s campaign which they don’t let up even after being rebuked by Hiruzen.
  * Sakura is withdrawn from the Academy under the assumption that she would be transferred to the civilian academy. Instead she disappears.
  * Naruto and Shikamaru start searching for Sakura. Sasuke and the entire gang, including Hinata, Shino and Kiba comes along.
  * The fight against Danzo escalates when Tsume joins their campaign after catching wind of what had happened.
  * Tsume is not pleased at all.
  * The scent trail of Sakura ends in the Haruno compound. Shikamaru deduces that the Haruno must be hiding Sakura.
  * Naruto angers, half ready to break the doors in and drag Sakura out. Shikamaru convinces Naruto that they should do it _permanently_ and force the authorities to set Sakura be free forever. Naruto grudgingly agrees.
  * Shikamaru starts a subtle smear campaign again Haruno, causing their reputation among most shinobis to drop drastically to the point of them boycotting them.
  * The kids are surprised it worked this well, not knowing that the adult Uchiha, Nara, Yamanaka, Akimichi and Inuzuka are doing it too.
  * Sasuke decides that if he's going to have fangirls trail after him, he's going to make them useful. A all-around clock watch is set up outside the Haruno compound under the pretense of a super secret shinobi mission. SSS RANK!
  * Itachi and Shisui may or may not have watched over them especially at night.
  * Tensions rise in the Haruno household and they take it out on Sakura.
  * Yuriko decides that since Lord Kawazaki has been asking for something novel to keep his interest in continuing his support for them, they will give Sakura to him. With Sakura's rare colour, she would be extremely _popular_ at the court.
  * Tsume ropes Hiashi it by calling in several favours in return for his assistance.
  * It's Hiashi that realises that Danzo has irregular chakra points on his arms and eye - chakra points that look like dojutsu instead of being a tenketsu point,
  * There is movement in the Haruno clan. Itachi sees the Haruno adults shove Sakura into a carriage. He sends a summon to the KMP station.
  * The kids: Shikamaru and Sasuke at this time, think there's something shady about a carriage departing in the evening. They follow the carriage all the way until it leaves the village. They attempt to follow it out but is stopped by Itachi and another Uchiha. Itachi tells them that they will take over and tell them to go home.
  * They pretend to. Sasuke shows a spot where he knows will take them out of the village.
  * They leave the village and hurry after the carriage... only to find out that that security loophole was actually manned by Anbu (Root, but they don't know better).
  * The Anbu escort them to the base where they meet Danzo in his office?? What is Danzo doing in an underground office? Shikamaru senses something not right.
  * Meanwhile Shikaku thinks Danzo took Shikamaru when he fails to turn up for supper and Chouji says he disappeared while on watch with Sasuke.
  * Banners are raised, clans are angry. Tsume tracks the two. They find the base.
  * Fight ensues. Shikaku cuts Danzo's arm off suspecting it has something special due to what Hiashi had said.
  * Danzo is proven to be a bloodline stealer.
  * Fugaku cuts his head off and shows it to Hiruzen along with the arm and the eyesocket with a Sharingan.
  * Hiruzen is pressured into retiring.
  * Hatake Kakashi is taken aback when he's nominated into becoming the next Hokage. Apparently it'd be poor taste for any of the clans who participated in killing Danzo to become Hokage, leaving Kakashi, Jiraiya and Tsunade to be the only possible candidates. They decide in favour of Kakashi.
  * Out of the village, Itachi cuts the route off for the Haruno clan and uses genjutsu on them to release Sakura, as well as their plans for her. Itachi escort Sakura back and brings her to the hospital.
  * Kakashi, the now Godaime, decides to approve everything on the table. Which includes Sakura being emancipated from the Haruno and a clan adoption into the Uchiha.
  * He also decides since he's Hokage, there's literally no one else stopping him from adopting Naruto, so he does that too.
  * The Uchihas look after Sakura well, Naruto is given a pack of dogs (Pakkun and co). Sasuke and Itachi becomes her adopted brothers.
  * Shikamaru is secretly glad she's Uchiha now, because then it'd be easier to court her when she's older instead of her being his adopted sister. He hatches plans.
  * Sakura recovers slowly, but her friendship with Naruto is tight and unbreakable.
  * Two years later, they meet 'secretly' at night under their favourite meeting spot.
  * it's not secretly when Shisui had been watching Sakura and Naruto has a whole pack of dogs and his anbu guard trailing after him, not that either of them realise it
  * Sakura and Naruto have a heart-to-heart talk. Sakura declares he's her bestest bestest friend in the world and if he really wants to be a Hokage, then she'd be his anbu commander.
  * They make a pact together and then that's it. Story ends.


End file.
